Erdogan dares world to fairly probe 'genocide' claims

Turkish president says Turkey's archives on claims of Armenian 'genocide' are open to all interested in fair probe

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has challenged the whole world to investigate the Armenian “genocide” claims in a fair manner.

In remarks made during his address at the Medipol University in Istanbul Saturday, Erdogan said: "I am calling on the whole world. If you trust yourselves, respect history, science, document and information, we have opened all our archives; if you also have [such archives on the Armenian issue], you can also open it.

"Let us give the task to historians, legal experts and archeologists, let them do their work and we can then give our consent to the results at the end of these efforts," he said.

In an earlier speech Saturday, the Turkish president had invited German politicians to jointly open the archives to settle the question about Armenian killings during 1915. "If available, you can also open your archives. Come and let us make a decision."

But, he said, the German politicians would not dare do such a thing "because when you attempt something like this, you know you are going to be left disgraced."

Later, speaking at a separate event in Istanbul's Marmara University, Erdogan termed the German parliament's resolution as an expression of Islamophobia.

"The German parliament took this decision, what will we happen to us? Nothing will happen. What they did is just satisfying themselves, it is nothing else," the president said.

On Thursday, the lower house of the German parliament approved a non-binding resolution recognizing Armenian claims of “genocide” during the 1915 events.

The resolution accused the Ottoman government of 1915 of allegedly carrying out “systematic genocide” against Armenians, as well as other Christian minorities.

The controversial resolution was submitted by the parliamentary groups of the ruling Christian Democrats, its coalition partner Social Democrats, and the opposition, Green Party. The Left party also backed the resolution.

Turkey denies the alleged Armenian “genocide”, but acknowledges that there were casualties on both sides during the events taking place in World War I.

According to Turkey's viewpoint, deaths of Armenians in eastern Anatolia in 1915 occurred after some sided with invading Russians and revolted against Ottoman forces. A subsequent relocation of Armenians resulted in numerous casualties.

Turkey describes the 1915 events as a tragedy for both sides.

Ankara has repeatedly proposed the creation of a joint commission of historians from Turkey and Armenia plus international experts to tackle the issue.